Eleven City Diner

Reviews

• J B.

  star star star star star 23 May 2026

  This place is absolutely amazing! I can't count the number of times I've been here as I live locally. Food is so freaking unbelievably good, service too!
  
  Serving size- everything, I mean everything are in HUGE portions.
  
  Turkey burgers- the best I've had in my life (I'm old I can say that)
  
  Soups- never fail, yummy!
  
  Drinks- vodka slushy (frozen lemonade) is delicious and boozy, homemade root beer, beer, wine, amazing!
  
  Desserts- huge portions and so, so good
  
  Atmosphere- coolest Jewish Deli diner on the planet
  
  Homemade food? Yes!!!!! The bread, soups, desserts, etc
  
  A must eat place in the South Loop!

• Elana K.

  star star star star star_border 22 May 2026

  We visited Eleven City Diner at around 12 noon on a Saturday for breakfast/lunch.  I imagine this is a routinely busy time for the restaurant, and busy it was.  Our group of six waited about 30-40 minutes to be seated.  Luckily the sun was out so waiting outside was not uncomfortable.  There is only a little room to stand around and wait inside the restaurant.
  
  The space is very eclectic, somewhat retro, and charming.  In some ways it reminded me of various establishments in New Orleans.  My family was seated at a cozy table upstairs.  The restaurant was quite warm, which I greatly prefer to the many restaurants out there that are always too cold.  Service was neither particularly quick nor too slow, but it was friendly and pleasant.
  
  I had the avocado bagel, which was really good, but probably not the best thing on the menu.  I think the pastrami was the standout.  I've never been a huge fan of pastrami - it usually registers as pretty dull and dry to me - but this version served up a blast of flavor and was very tender.  It reminded me a bit of mom's Thanksgiving ham.  Everyone at our table was head-over-heels for it.  We also shared the Black and White French Toast as a sort of dessert for the table.  This was delicious and everyone loved it, though I think we were all glad to have shared it as a dessert, since it would have been a very sweet entree for one person to eat alone.
  
  I tried their heavily advertised homebrewed root beer, since I'm somewhat of a root beer aficionado.  It actually was really good, I am happy to say, since I have been disappointed by "homebrewed" root beer before.  It was however a little pricey at nearly $7 a mug.  Though this does include free refills, I am not one to down glass after glass of soda pop, so that didn't mean much to me.  On the topic of price, this place is pretty expensive.  If you order carefully you can get more value for your money, but don't be daft enough to order an $11 hot dog!

• Alyssa C.

  star star star star_border star_border 15 May 2026

  We went on the Sunday of Lollapalooza so the place was pretty packed with people hungover and looking to cure a three day long binge. The place is pretty neat; inside there is an old-school style deli and candy counter which was really interesting visually. There is a virtually NOWHERE to stand around inside and wait. We were basically pressed up against the glass, otherwise you have to wait outside - which in the cooler weather would not be pleasant.
  
  They have a rule that they will not seat your party until everyone is there. I could understand this if the person was not physically IN THE BUILDING but they refused to seat us because one of the people in our party was in the bathroom... physically present in the building but in the restroom. They refused to seat us so we were blocking the entryway and milling about while they continued to seat other people.
  
  I ordered the "bad ass breakfast sandwich" as did another person at our table. I was told the pastrami was awesome, however, the breakfast sandwich while really interesting and tasty in thought and flavors with the challah roll as the bun - it had to be completely dismantled and eaten in pieces because it was way too tall to eat. Literally taller than my coffee mug and then some and trying to squash it down meant that all the innards squished out all over the place.
  
  I would go back again to try other menu items but I was a little underwhelmed.
  
  Also... the coffee was *painfully* expensive for not being that fantastic.

• Emily S.

  star star star star star_border 9 May 2026

  This place is always bustling with tourists on the weekends, and the lines are long. They have a very organized system of announcing names though, which I appreciated. While we waited on a Saturday morning, we enjoyed looking at the eclectically-decorated space and browsed the huge menu. After waiting 45 minutes, my friend and I were able to get a seat at the bar. We got a root beer float, Rubin's Reubin sandwich, and a mac and cheese. Both dishes were tasty and better than most other diner food I've had, but I wasn't particularly impressed. The portions were huge and we weren't able to finish them all.
  
  My only gripe is that we paid over $25 per person, which felt like a whole lot. Other than that, service was courteous, and we had a good time.

• Dominique R.

  star star star star star 6 May 2026

  The minute you walk into this place you enter the world of an old school diner with high ceilings, a deli counter, candy shoppe counter, old school soda taps and malt machines. The decor adds to the atmosphere with checkered floors.
  
  The menu is vast with so many choices. Breakfast is served all day. My boyfriend ordered the root beer float, which was massive. He got the burger with fries. He could barely finish his meal because there was so much. I ordered the black and white French toast, which was to die for. It came with 4 pieces covered in ooooey gooey goodness.  I could eat this all day.
  
  We also took home a GIGANTIC slice of red velvet cake.
  
  Service was excellent and quick. We really enjoyed this local diner